


Confession

by AmiLu



Series: Rebel Fire Ficlets [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Season 4 Spoilers, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2019-01-19 18:34:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12415656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmiLu/pseuds/AmiLu
Summary: “I can’t stand the thought of losing you.”





	Confession

**Author's Note:**

> (can be read as a sequel to [A Step Forward](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12378525))

Keith is reckless.

It goes without saying. Without further deliberation. Earth rotates and the Sun rises in the East. Two masses attract each other with a force equal to a constant multiplied by the product of the two masses and divided by the square of the distance between them. The Galaxy Garrison knows more than it ever says. Aliens exist. Keith is reckless.

Still, Matt hadn’t known the extent of  _how much_  before finding him back on space (after that disastrous Kerberos mission, after months of imprisonment, after being rescued and becoming part of the revolution against the Galra. After Pidge found him and introduced him to her Voltron friends and Matt finally got to see Keith again.)

Sure, he had known about the stunts he used to pull in the flight simulators, about how he used to talk back to the teachers, about how he would not stand back if he thought an injustice was being committed. Matt had believed him reckless, yes, but also very brave.

Now, after many missions in combination with Voltron and the Blade of Marmora, Matt has decided to add ‘self-sacrificing idiot’ to his mental list of descriptors.

“I thought we talked about this, Keith!” he growled into the comms.

“Sorry!” A grunt, a long-drawn breath. “ _Take that…!_  I know, but it was the only—”

“No. No, don’t you dare. None of that ‘only way’ shit. You could have waited five more minutes. Five. Voltron was almost there, the Galra hadn’t noticed anything amiss yet. Five minutes and you’d have back-up instead of flying solo into what was most obviously a trap. Dammit, Keith.”

“I knew they were coming!  _Fuck this, stupid bot, this is important!_  Matt, this wasn’t like the other time, I—”

“I can’t stand the thought of losing you.”

The comms are silent except for the sounds of lasers shooting and a vague crackle of static. Matt presses his lips tight together.

“Matt… ”

“I can’t, Keith. Just. Finish this and come back safe, yeah? We’ll. We’ll talk about this then. Please?”

“… Okay. I’ll hold you to that.”

“Yeah.”

Matt changes the settings and puts the whole team back on speakers. He assures Pidge that he’s fine, and soon gets drawn into helping them however he can from his backup position.

Captain Olia keeps darting glances at him, and when Matt finally looks at her, her smile is sympathetic and understanding. “It’s hard,” she says, not looking at him now but to the fires of the battle in front of them, “being in love with people like him, especially in times of war.” Matt’s breath hitches, and he feels something heavy drop in his stomach. “But… it’s worth it. Treasure it. Be happy.”

He’s not sure whether he can be; doesn’t know if Keith feels the same. They’ve never talked about it— _them,_  as being anything more than friends, even though sometimes it  _feels_  like so much more. For a while, he’d been happy with just that. But now Matt is tired of waiting, tired of hesitating and wondering and stepping around the issue, so he’s going to put all his cards on the table and hope for the best. He’s been thinking of doing it for a while; Keith’s latest stunt only accelerated the process.

“Thanks,” he says. He swallows to get rid of the lump in his throat, then tries to smile. “I’ll try.”

The rhythm of the battle reaches its climax then, and soon it’s completely over. He isn’t sure how much time has passed since he talked to Keith, but it’s much less than what he’d thought he would have. Before he realizes it, Matt finds himself alone with Keith.

“So,” he starts, but he doesn’t really know what to say, so he leaves the sentence hanging.

“So…”

“Uh, about what I said earlier…”

“I love you.”

He was  _not_  expecting that. 

“… What?”

Keith shifts his weight from foot to foot and plays absently with one of his fingerless gloves. “You said… and I realized. I mean, I think I knew already, but I didn’t. Know. What to do. But now—”

Matt walks two steps closer to Keith and takes his face in his hands. Keith shuts up and looks at him with wide, hopeful eyes. There’s some nervousness there, too. “Yeah, that was… that was what I wanted to tell you. I… I love you, too. So seeing you pull stunts like that is…  _Please._  I don’t want to lose you.”

Keith kisses him then, quick and chaste, surprising him so much that he can’t do anything but blink.

“I won’t stop,” Keith says. His eyes are serious. “Sometimes it will be necessary. This is  _war,_  Matt. But I can promise to try out other solutions first.”

“And ask for help,” Matt adds, because that’s actually his main concern. He’s never even considered to ask Keith to stop fighting—that’s ridiculous. Fighting is in Keith’s veins, in his sense of self: bright and passionate and fiery like the red lion he no longer pilots, but who still belongs to him. Asking him to stop fighting is akin to killing him, just in a less permanent way. Plus, as he isn’t about to pull out of the fight either, he’d be a hypocrite. Matt hates hypocrites.

Keith’s lips twitch upwards, but he concedes. “And ask for help.”

Matt takes a long breath and then nods. “Yeah, okay. I can live with that. Um.” His eyes fall to Keith’s lips. “Can I kiss you again?”

Keith laughs, then, warm and surprised. “Yeah. Yeah, you can,” he says, and Matt kisses him. Properly this time.

**Author's Note:**

> The first ficlet in the series! I will be updating it as I fill the prompts left @matt-n-keith! :)
> 
> Thank you for reading! <3


End file.
